10 September 2005    to      11 September 2005

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After a two month interval between our favorite past-time, namely hiking, we finally did Wag n' bietjie. Wag n' Bietjie is a small nature reserve about 20km outside Warmbaths on the Alma road. I think it was just what we needed to get into shape again. Not too difficult but not completely easy either. Silvia had taken the Friday off and I slipped out of the office just before 12. We arrived sometime after 2pm. A well equipped base camp greated us which consisted of four..one could almost say Wendy houses, two braai facilities, and ablution facilities with hot water..not to mention our very friendly and helpful host, Frans Lottering. After settling in, a few beers followed. Our very "Tender Hiker" (of Naukluft fame!) arrived somewhat late and we had our traditional Friday evening Garlic snails.

Next morning we were off. Us looking forward to our first hike in awhile again, and Sue (Tender hiker) looking forward to her fist day of two weeks leave.

The area was quite dry with the first rains not having fallen yet.

One has a bit of a climb from the base camp up to the top of the surrounding hills.

The area seems to have the makings of an ancient river bed with the small rounded stones embedded in the sandstone.

At one point, one is obliged to crawl through a small tunnel made by a hanging rock.

As the saying goes, "what goes up must come down", so after reaching the top of the hills the trail descends again. Part of the descent is along a cliff face.

A chain leads down a 15 meter drop with the last 6 meters being a vertical drop. We thought we'd skip that and take the longer round about way down.

We took it easy on this hike, as we figured the hills are not very high, so it cannot be too bad..and we were right!

Along the way we came across some drinking trough's for the buck. This is a Salt stone. The buck like to lick it for salt.

A game fence needed to be crossed. Not far from here we spotted some Giraffe.

Eventually we reached a small stream and decided to have lunch here.

Eventually we reached our overnight camp. Not far from here a small spring surfaces.

The basecamp consists of three small "Wendy houses" and a braai plus a "Donkey" for hot water. As we had arrived fairly early in the afternoon we all had plenty of time to relax or explore the surrounding bush. The evening temperatures where nice and mild too, and we sat around the camp fire.

Next morning after the "group photo" we were off again. The second day is a bit too short for our liking.

Along the way back we came across a herd of Eland.

Our basecamp as seen from the last hill. All in all a very pleasant hike and fairly close to Johannesburg.